Saturday, February 1, 2014

A Few Accomplishments

I am not excited about getting moving and accomplishing anything yet this morning so I will share what I have been up to in the sewing room in the last month or so.

Over Christmas, when my sewing room was turned into a guest room, I pulled out a quilt 'kit' I had made up for quilt retreat and sewed up this top out in the great room on one of my Singer 301s in a cabinet. I really like how it turned out and will probably use it for the quilt exchange with the ladies at Tuesday evening craft night.

It looks especially nice against my great room's yellow walls with the Bing and Grondahl plates hanging above.This next item is the table runner I made with the leftover One Block Wonder blocks that I used for my neighbor's Christmas table topper.

After I had the top of this put together, I discovered one more block hiding in the sewing room and it was used on the back. Now I have a nice Christmas gift on hand or something to add to the sales table at the next bazaar.Also over Christmas I finally figured out where to put a cool hook I found at a garage sale. Hubby got it installed and then I started the hunt for a hanging pot to put my spider plant in. Interestingly enough, nobody is selling hanging pots or any appropriate pots at this time of year. I came home from one shopping excursion and looked over my old pots outside and found this yellow one from the 70s. I had to do some scrubbing but it isn't too bad. Plant hangers are also not out there anywhere (even the thrift store) so I set about finding some sort of cord to see if I still have any macrame skills. Struggled to find cord too, but finally found this dark brown jute last Saturday and was able to whip up this hanger in about an hour.

Nothing fancy but it turned out pretty nicely I think!Next Saturday I will be teaching a class for the guild on the stained glass denim quilts so I had my son haul all the denim out of the attic and I pulled out what was stashed around the sewing room and started ripping and cutting it up in preparation for the class. You see, my goal is to get rid of the denim that I have so I am offering the class for $10 per person and I am providing the fabric for the top. All the tops that are made will then go to the guild's Community Quilt program and likely from there to graduating foster kids in our county. As a bonus, the money will all go to Relay for Life. There were boxes and bags and bins full of denim. I have enough squares cut for 10 quilts so far and a couple of ladies from the guild have taken a couple of boxes of denim and ripped and cut for me also. Today I need to get started on figuring out the lesson plan for the class and how we will set up the space.My boss asked me to make a denim baby quilt for her to give as a gift so last Sunday I pulled out some of my odd shaped pieces (I always get way too many 2" squares so if I have pieces that are 2X3, 2X4, 2X6, 3X3, 3X4 or 3X6 I don't cut them down and use them when I am feeling creative) and put together this top.

You can see my piles of 4" and 6" squares on the back of the table in this picture. Anyway, I need to get some fabric for the back and I can get it quilted and delivered. I will use it for an sample though for next Saturday's class.I have been fighting a nasty cough for almost 3 weeks and went to the doctor yesterday and got cough syrup with codeine and prednisone in the hopes that I can get rid of it. Looking forward to the end of this one! I had an MRI on my ankle this week and will find out next Wednesday from the doctor if there is anything that can be done to give me more range of motion. This is one time I am hoping for surgery!Well, it is time to head outside to prune some apple trees and then into the sewing room to maybe get a round robin project or two finished and ready to mail on.Happy Quilting!